The present invention relates generally to archery bows and their components and accessories, and more particularly to an apparatus for dampening the vibration of a bowstring to silence the sound produced by the bowstring during the release of the bowstring when shooting.
As recognized by those skilled in the art, a bowstring on an archery bow will produce a characteristic noise upon release of the bowstring to launch an arrow. This characteristic noise is associated with the vibrational pattern created by the bowstring, and is colloquially referred to as a “twang.”
While this sound does not affect the accuracy of a shot, the sound travels faster than the arrow and, therefore, the sound may startle the target and reduce the potential for an accurate hit. There have been numerous solutions proposed to this problem, many of them basing their effectiveness on the attachment of some device to the bow and/or the bowstring to “interfere” with the oscillating movement of the bowstring and thereby reduce the associated noise created by the bowstring.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,720,269, issued to Saunders, discloses a bowstring sound dampener having a support arm with one end mounted to a bow, and a cushion member on a second end of the support. The cushion member is formed of a resilient material which absorbs the energy of movement of the bowstring upon release of the bowstring after launching an arrow, thereby dampening the sound emitted by the string.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,966,314, issued to McPherson, discloses a limb-mounted bowstring vibration and noise suppressor. The vibration and noise suppressor is carried by a support having an attachment device at one end for attaching the suppressor to a limb of a bow.
In yet another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,432, issued to Andrews et al., discloses an archery bow having at least one dampener configured to reduce noise and vibration of the bow. The dampener is connected to a limb or to a riser or handle portion of the bow to reduce vibrations transferred to the riser by the limb.
While the preceding prior art devices perform well, most involve the bowstring impacting a relatively immobile surface, thereby creating additional noise created when the bowstring impacts the surface. Moreover, many prior art sound dampener devices permit the bowstring to impact the device multiple times before the bowstring is stopped, thereby lessening the effectiveness of the device.
Therefore, what is needed is a bowstring sound dampening device that offers not only an improved ability to trap the bowstring to prevent the bowstring from oscillating after the shot and creating unwanted noise, but that also reduces the noise created upon impact of the bowstring, thereby providing additional benefit. The instant invention satisfies this need.